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April 07, 2008

Breaking: Statesman a finalist for Pulitzer

The 2008 Pulitzer Prizes were announced today, and the Idaho Statesman was a runner-up in the breaking news category "for its tenacious coverage of the twists and turns in the scandal involving the state’s senator, Larry Craig." The recognition comes in the "Breaking News" category, for which The Washington Post won for its coverage of the Virginia Tech tragedy and The New York Times was the other finalist. Not bad company.

To see the citation, click here, then click on "2008 winners announced," then scroll to the bottom for the press release (winners and nominated finalists). As the Statesman reports on its website, it's the first time the newspaper has been a finalist for journalism's most prestigious award.

Comments

I understand that PrideDepot.com has a story on their take regarding the Idaho Statesman's award for coverage of the Craig story. I haven't read it yet, but a friend told me to hop to it, so I am heading there right now. From what I remember about their past posts, they were not terribly happy with the Statesman's investigative tactics. Think they were the ones that first noted that Popkey was showing Craig's picture around gay bars in D.C.
Pretty classy journalism there Dan.

Even second place (i.e., a nomination) is better than Popkey or the Statesman deserve to be credited with. For all appearances, they did a lackluster job researching this, then nervously sat on their softpedaled findings until they had no choice but to publish.

d2, I'm not sure the "Breaking News" category was the best for this (since blogger Mike Rogers originally outed Craig and Roll Call broke the news of the arrest).

But as someone with a journalism degree, I think the Statesman did the right thing - albeit painfully - in sitting on its story until the arrest became public. (Of course, the real untold story remains this: Who alerted Roll Call, weeks after the airport arrest, to the story?) They showed appropriate restraint, then they provided excellent coverage of the resignation-un-resignation story as well as good (and loudly condemned) background reporting on why someone like Craig might want to keep his sexuality a secret.

Think back to last September, when this story was atop the news for weeks. Faced with a chorus of late-night TV jokes, the Statesman stayed on top of the Craig saga as a news story, not a spectacle. They did their job in following what was probably the biggest story in Idaho political history. I believe the Pulitzer judges made the right call.